Zeiss Ikon ZM – Why using a Rangefinder doesn’t mean you crave a red dot

In an earlier article I suggested why I love an unloved camera, the Zeiss Ikon ZM and why after it being stolen in 2018 I very much miss it. From that article a few people on different forums have sort of, in round about ways suggested that I really should get a rangefinder with a red dot on it to get the “real” rangefinder experience and be fulfilled. That until I experience one I will not understand what rangefinder photography is about.

So I thought it might be worth putting down in tablets of stone, why using a rangefinder doesn’t automatically mean you wished you had tools made in Wetzlar or Midland. Why it is entirely possible to use a rangefinder and not care that its actually a rangefinder. Also hopefully this will serve as a bit of a review of a camera, which I didn’t just use for a month or two, but was my main camera for almost 12 years.

To be totally frank, I had never thought about an interchangeable lens rangefinder until in 2000 I found myself stranded without a Camera. Not that I didn’t have a camera, I was just going to be without any of my cameras for about 18months. After 2 months it was more confabulating than I thought it would have been, so the search for a film camera that would not break the bank was on with the vague hope of buying a new camera – only Pentax LX and Nikon F6(?) seemed to still exist.

I had dabbled with an M6 in 1995 but that was a disastrous tale of second curtain problems and a strap lug falling out. So the thought of a rangefinder was anathema.

Then Voigtlander (re)appeared, in the shape of Cosina.

My name is Nigel and I am a Voigtlander/Rollei/Ikon addict.

The thought of a new film camera bearing the name Voigtlander was almost too much. Yes it wasn’t German, but I have a history with Singapore made Rollei and Voigtlander, so a Japanese made one – hey that’s OK. Also my first ever SLR was a Cosina CT, in 1979 – its a fabulous camera when as a 14 year old you have saved every penny you can to add to Christmas and birthday money, just to not have to buy a Zenith.

So to have a camera that took film just as digital was taking over – I dully handed over my coins and bought a new Voigtlander R2 with a new 25mm f4 Snapshot Skopar and a used 75mm Heliar. All I could afford at the time.

It arrived in the very Teutonic black box, but I would have preferred Voigtlander blue, but immediately in the hand felt it like a Voigtlander. Not a Prominent or a Vitessa (though there are shades of the Vitessa), but a VSL1 – an early VSL 1 or more correctly it felt in part like a Zeiss ikon SL706 but with shades of VSL 3E. The leatherette felt just like a SL706, The shutter release while a bigger diameter felt familiar and the shutter speed dial didn’t feel like a Cosina CT1 it felt more like a VSL 3E. If the box had said made in Singapore I would have believed.

It may have been a little bit Rose tinted spectacles but it felt like a 1970s Rollei SL / Voigtlander VSL but with a Rangefinder. Which in my personal highly subjective world view is not a bad thing.

From 1980 to that day I had extensively use Pentax M cameras and Rollei SLR including the SL2000f. Coming form that world the Bessa felt right. It was a camera I knew I could use. But I had also used Rollei 35s and Olympus fixed lens rangefinders – in particular the 35B and RC. Again the Bessa felt familiar – reading about short base length, added no worries as I am too old to know what Bokeh is and 75mm to me is almost super telephoto – 21-28 being the sweet spot at f8.

The 25mm f4 Snapshot Skopar was also a joy to use. I have owned 25mm Distagons and the 25mm l39 hyperlocal Cosina made lens is almost as good and at f11 makes beautiful carry around lens. It draws beautifully on Velvia. The 75mm a great little portrait lens, but one I never used enough. To those two I added first the 35mm f2.5 – not used often, its a focal length I struggle with.

A New IKON

Then in 2005 Zeiss announce the unthinkable. A new Camera bearing the name IKON not Contax. And made by Cosina. The photographic press was awash with how it harked to the Contax II or III, but if you know and you look closely it articulates the Contarex, Contaflex and Icarex much more.

It was a camera with Voigtlander/Rollei 35 rewind and feet and a SL2000 rear catch (PS the SL2000 is in reality a Voigtlander/Zeiss camera). The frame-line lever is an upside down (right way up if you don’t get it) SL706/VSL/Icarex self timer. Even the AE lock is in the same place as the R button on a VSL3E.

So in 2006 as a 40th birthday Present to myself I got a Zeiss Ikon ZM and 50mm Planar f2. This is also important as it is the first “true Planar” Zeiss had built since the 60s (all SLR planners since 71 have been Ultron or extended Ultron type).

Again I was not disappointed – out of the box it was a lovely camera to use. It also didn’t feel like a Contax, either RF or Yashica. What it felt like was an Icarex sort of of. It was obviously not a Contarex – nothing is built that well, it had shades of Contaflex or even Bessmatic, but was much more like holding an Icarex with a wind lever that echoed a contarex.

Again all subjective and a bit rose tinted, but again it felt like a continuation of Braunschweig and Oberkocken rather than and attempt to make a cheaper red dot.

Sadly after 12 years my ZM was stolen in Vietnam along with my Voigtlander lenses and my Rollei SL2000f which had done over 2 decades service.

Both the Bessa and ZM have limitation. Neither are perfect. The ZM patch can be lost, but rarely. The AE lock is awkward. The Bessa needs rangefinder adjusting yearly (its easy to do). But The Bessa, built as it is on the same copal shutter that 100s of thousands of Cosina CT1s and clones have used is a reliable beast. The ZM with its massive viewfinder is almost Pentax LX like and wonderful with a 25mm lens (its a 25mm view).

Frame-lines which are electable (R2) and viewable (ZM) make choosing lenses easy, but also mean you are not stuck with the wrong adapter on L39s. As a Pentax user, given the CT1 is modelled on the K1000 so both have Pentax like metering patterns, if you have used a a Pentax it meters in a familiar way. But on the ZM the icing is the intuitive exposure compensation on the shutter speed dial. Such a simple solution.

I hear complaints about disappearing rangefinder patch – it can. But my experience is that it rarely does and on an f2 Planar, with an adjusted RF (I do not understand why you would not adjust the RF regularly anyway), it is a very lovely experience.

Loading film is simple, as is removing it. No fiddling with removable backs and slot in doors. The complaints that automation will eventually die, often come from social media presences, who whilst use a red dot have no problem with an aged Canon AE-1.

Then there are the lenses – I also eventually purchased a 35mm f2.8 Biogon as a pair the F2 Planar and f2.8 biotin are perfect for the way I photograph, which tends to be in Daylight and f5.6 to f11 on DIN 18 or 21 film (yes I still think in DIN it makes more sense as its logarithmic), for mainly documenting all the places we have lived and family images.

But the star for me is always the Voigtlander 25mm f4 Snapshot Skopar – a prefocus and forget lens, which is where having AE is very useful – I rarely missed a chance image with the Ikon and the 25.

Both cameras give and have given me so much pleasure and have travelled to around 40 countries. But they are not red dots or even red dot clones. That is important to remember. But if you come from film SLRs and in particular Pentax or I would argue OM and Nikon before the F4 they are SLRs with rangefinders. Bridge cameras for want of another word.

Today I still use a Rollei SL35 and still use Pentax MX and ME Supers, but I also use a Voigtlander Bessa R2 with a Zeiss ZM Planar f2. They are both cameras I use and will continue to use (I keep an eye open for an early number limited ZM) not because I ever wanted an interchangeable lens rangefinder with a red dot on it. But because I am a Rollei/Voigtlander/Ikon addict.

Please come and visit me on Intsagram, Threads and Youtube, where after almost 50 years of making images I am starting to put my personal thoughts down.

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